Steampunk Holmes: Legacy of the Nautilus

by P.C. Martin

In an alternative Steampunk universe (c.1885), the plans for Captain Nemo's mysterious Nautilus submarine have been stolen from the British Secret Service. There is only one man who can solve the case, Sherlock Holmes. With his bionic side-kick Doctor Watson, and his brilliant and lethal sister, Mycroft Holmes, Sherlock unravels a mystery that will shake the foundation of the British Empire.

Adapted by P.C. Martin from the short story, 'The Adventure of the Bruce-Partington Plans' by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (c.1912), 'Steampunk Holmes' is a convergence of one of Doyle's favorite Sherlock Holmes stories with Jules Vern 'Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea' (c.1870)

Genres: Steampunk, Mystery, Fiction, Science Fiction, Fantasy, Alternate History, Crime

ebook

First published February 19, 2012

Reviews

[PulpMonkey (Chompa) · Rating 2 out of 5]

Sherlock Holmes - yes! Steampunk - Yes! Tie those two into the legacy of the Captain Nemo? - Hell Yes!

Sadly, unlike peanut butter and chocolate or green olives and yellow beer, these things didn't seem to mix too well.

The plot is a tad muddy, the writing seems forced and the attempts at injecting steampunk into a Holme's story were weak.

My hope is that the iPad version may feel very different if it involves lots of pictures. I have a feeling that seeing this as you read it might grant the story some wings. As it stands now, not very recommended.

[Kim · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was quite excited when I discovered this book. The design and art associated with it was attractive. I bought the Kindle edition for the reasonable price of $2.99. Now before I get into my thoughts on this work, I have to make some things clear. I am a Sherlockian. I have been a rabid Holmes fan since the age of 12. I've read all the Arthur Conan Doyle stories many, many times. I've been part of scholarly discussions of them. I've read lots of Holmes pastiches (what other fandoms would call fanfiction, but these are published. Yay public domain.) I've written Holmes pastiches.

So with all of that background, I am a particularly picky audience. Half-assed depictions of Sherlock Holmes are just going to annoy me. But I do enjoy pastiches, and am open to pretty wild versions of Holmes. As I stared reading this book (novella? 144 pages isn't much of a novel, really) I was impressed. The language did a very good job of recreating the style of Doyle. As I continued I started to notice that entire sentences were lifted from various places in the Doyle canon. That's not unheard of in Holmes pastiches. I started to appreciate the differences the author made from the Doyle stories: Watson has a cybernetic arm with weaponry, Mycroft is Holmes' sister instead of his brother, Holmes drives a motorized velocipede and is a tinkerer of gadgets.

But then as I got to the actual plot, I very quickly realized something: this is not an original plot. It is the Arthur Conan Doyle story "The Adventure of the Bruce-Partington Plans" with some of the names changed. Instead of the stolen plans being of the Bruce-Partington submarine, they are of the Nautilus. The name of the dead man is changed from Cadogan West to Cadbury. The gender of the villain is changed. But the actual mystery, the solution to it, that's all lifted straight from Doyle. A good 40% of this book is a slightly altered version of a Doyle story, and as such was really, really boring to me. After finishing it, I compared the two texts side by side. The author changes enough around to avoid being a direct find-and-replace plagiarist. Wording of sentences are slightly changed without changing their meaning. Paragraphs are added in between the Doyle sections. But it is still a retelling of a story that already existed.

After about 40% of the way through (don't you love the Kindle) the author suddenly breaks with Doyle by adding in a bunch of action sequences. Shootouts and chase scenes. Holmes and Watson sure seem comfortable killing a bunch of people. The fact that the people they kill are mostly Indians may be consistent with the racial attitudes of the time, but since that is an addition by a modern author, I side-eye it a bit. There is an attempt to make the climax and conclusion of the story different than the Doyle story and create more of a plot tied in with Jules Verne. But I didn't find it all that interesting. Action sequence, exposition scene, action sequence, action sequence, exposition scene. There is no actual mystery or solving of mysteries after the author copies the mystery part of the Doyle story.

The only saving grace of this story, in my opinion, is the writing style. The author is very good at making her style Victorian and Doyle-esque in a subtle way that modern writers usually have a hard time capturing. So that impresses me. The accompanying illustrations are nice, although I wish someone could have copy-edited the LARGE BOLD type under them so that "Lestrade" was spelled correctly.

So, ultimately, I don't feel I can recommend this story. Someone who has never read the Doyle stories might really enjoy it, but its difficult for me to say that. Of course, if you haven't, you might just want to go read those, which you can get for free.

(If you want to see more steampunk book reviews like this, they are at http://steamingenious.blogspot.com/se...)

[Eric Dirker · Rating 2 out of 5]

Being a huge fan of Sherlock Holmes, I had pretty high hopes for this piece. Unfortunately, these hopes were quickly dashed. I recognize that the author wanted to put an original spin on such a classic, but the characters, pacing and overall feel of the book were rather ho-hum. I'm a bit surprised that Sir Doyle's estate would give their stamp of approval to this adaptation.

The steampunkisms were fairly contrived and did nothing, on a whole, to contribute to the story. In fact, they felt a bit forced and unnatural. Nemo was a very flat character and the painfully obvious use of him for foreshadowing the next book ground his character into a lifeless pile of dust. Finally,I found it rather difficult to relate to Holmes, himself. Originally, Holmes character was aloof yet likeable. P.C. Martin seemed to draw a rough sketch of the detective and leave personality a lighter shade of boring. This is something that I have never felt in reading and rereading the originals.

For anybody that is a die hard fan of Steampunk or the Sherlockian canon, it is difficult to resist this book. My single suggestion is to not get your hopes up.

[Steampunk Pagan · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is one example of buyers remorse.

I can not voice my frustration with this novella any better or in a nicer way than Eric Dirker did in his review. Would just like to add that I would add a half star for being thankfully short so the pain of reading this did not last long.

Eric Dirker"s review:
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...

[Claudia · Rating 2 out of 5]

So... this story...

You know, I love Sherlock Holmes, I love steampunk and I love Captain Nemo, so I should have adored this. And yet...it doesn't hit any of these buttons :/

This is 'The Adventure of the Bruce-Partington Plans' with some added steampunk elements but no real steampunk feel to it. There are also some chases and action scenes thrown in it by the end, but mostly, it's the same story with a slightly different ending, trying to tie it up to 'Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea'. Sadly, it didn't really work for me, as it felt quite rushed.

It's not a terrible story, but not a very good one, either.

[Erik · Rating 2 out of 5]

This garage sale find intrigued me with a title that captured some things I normally consider good omens... Holmes, Nautilus, and steampunk. I'm very sad to say my "omen meter" was way off.

There is virtually no steampunk feel to this book, and I never really enjoyed the "Holmes" or "Nautilus" contributions either. It felt clunky, and forced together in the hopes something terrific is the end result. Think putting chocolate on a slice of pizza... two good things that combined does not make something great, or even palatable.

I think there was a sincere effort attempted, hence the lack of a one star rating. I really did not like the book, but it would feel wrong to befoul the true One Star's out there with an effort that meant well.

1.5 Stars, rounding up for the sake of pizza and chocolate.

[Steven Davis · Rating 2 out of 5]

Read in a day. Not brilliant, not terrible, and it got the first book of the year read. Now, a week later, I can barely remember anything about it except some of the Steampunk elements seemed grafted on.

[Lynn · Rating 4 out of 5]

I like Steampunk and I liked this book very much.

[Newton Nitro · Rating 3 out of 5]

Steampunk Holmes: Legacy of the Nautilus - P.C. Martin | 135 páginas, Noble Beast 2012 | Lido de 16.03.19 a 19.03.19 | NOTA: 6.5 em 10

SINOPSE
Em um universo alternativo Steampunk (c.1885), os planos para o misterioso submarino Nautilus do Capitão Nemo foram roubados do Serviço Secreto Britânico. Há apenas um homem que pode resolver o caso, Sherlock Holmes. Com seu chute lateral biônico Doctor Watson e sua brilhante e letal irmã Mycroft Holmes, Sherlock desvenda um mistério que abalará a fundação do Império Britânico.

Adaptado por P.C. Martin do conto 'A aventura dos planos de Bruce-Partington' de Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (c.1912), 'Steampunk Holmes' é uma convergência de uma das histórias favoritas de Sherlock Holmes de Doyle com Jules Vern 'Twenty Thousand Leagues Under o mar'

RESENHA
Uma divertida “fan fiction” oficial misturando Sherlock Holmes e o Capitão Nemo! Gostei muito da irmã de Sherlock, a brilhante e inteligente Mycroft Holmes, que dá uma atualizada no universo do famoso detetive. A história segue fielmente o estilo tradicional, seco e direto do Conan Doyle, com alguns detalhes interessantes e um toque de aventura de espionagem! Parece ser a primeira de uma série de aventuras Steampunk com o Holmes, e vou tentar ler as próximas! Curti, ideal para fãs de Steampunk!

[The Speculative Post · Rating 2 out of 5]

Okay, so to start with, Steampunk as a genre is very tricky. You need to resist the urge to fall prey to what I like to call the “Glue cogs onto every flat surface” problem, which is when you let the elements of Steampunk as a genre overrule what you’re trying to do: tell an engaging story. In this story, Watson has a cyber arm with a gun in it, Holmes drives a high-powered motorcycle (also with guns on it) and there’s a zeppelin (another mainstay of the genre). Other than that, it feels like the elements of Steampunk are completely absent. You’d think, if it was as rare as all that, Watson would get a little more attention for having a massive steel gun-arm, but nobody seems to notice. It felt tacked on and lacklustre for something that even has ‘steampunk’ in the title.

But that’s not all bad is it? If the steampunk elements are downplayed, maybe that means the Holmes elements are top notch! Well, I was definitely thinking as I read through this, that at the very least, they got the baseline elements of ‘A Sherlock Holmes Story’ down pat. It turns out there is a reason for this as well. The basic plotline of Steampunk Holmes is as follows:

The British Government has a top secret military research facility which has the plans for a powerful submarine, the Nautilus (In steampunk fashion, these plans are in the form of punch-cards for an analytical engine). The plans have gone missing, and a man who works at the office, named Cadbury, is found dead in a trainyard, his head smashed in, and seven of the ten cards in his possession. The three missing ones are the most important, and Holmes needs to solve the murder and recover the plans.

There is a story, written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle in 1912 called The Adventure of the Bruce-Partington Plans whose basic plotline is as follows:

The British Government has a top secret military research facility which has the plans for a powerful submarine. The plans have gone missing, and a man who works at the office, named Cadogan, is found dead in a trainyard, his head smashed in, and seven of the ten pages of the plans in his possession. The three missing ones are the most important, and Holmes needs to solve the murder and recover the plans.

While the credit at the start of the work says ‘Adapted by P.C. Martin from the short story’ etc. etc., the adaptation seems like it consisted of ‘Holmes has a fancy motorcycle, Watson has a Gun-Arm and Mycroft (still named Mycroft) is a woman. Also, we changed the names of some characters’ which is really not enough for me to consider this an adaptation so much as an appropriation. If you’re going to take an existing story and change elements, they need to be thoughtful, effective and significant. These were none of those.

In the same way that Pride and Prejudice and Zombies was about 80% the literal word-for-word text of Pride and Prejudice, this felt to me more like a novelty gimmick and not a serious intent to adapt the works of Conan Doyle to the Steampunk oeuvre. The only things which were done originally weren’t done very engagingly, and for something so short (only 144 pages in my .pdf copy) you really need to add something more than a few very un-Holmesian chase and action scenes.

All of that being said, if you’ve never read any Conan Doyle, or if you are such a fan of Holmes or Steampunk or both that you’d happily read -anything- that uses those subjects, this is a quick and easy read you might get a kick out of.

Dan was provided a review copy of this book by Noble Beast LLC

[Vesmé · Rating 3 out of 5]

Overall I liked this story, however I had a few nitpicky things I noticed and then at the end Watson's behavior over something really annoyed me.

Steampunk Holmes: Legacy of the Nautilus is based on the Sherlock Holmes short story "The Adventure of the Bruce-Partington Plans." It also includes a character who is the son of Captain Nemo, from "Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea" and "The Mysterious Island."

The first nitpicky thing I noticed was that when Holmes wakes up Watson, he says "Very sorry to wake you up, Watson," said he, "but it's the common lot this morning. Mrs. Hudson has been woken up, she retorted upon me, and I on you."

Those familiar with the original text will know that Holmes actually uses the expression "knock you up." I can understand that the might have changed it to appeal to a new crowd, but I took me out of the story. Especially since later Watson still used the expression "ejaculated" for saying something. Seemed odd to change one and not the other. I mean, it's a Steampunk twist, so they still use Victorian language.

I also noticed that Watson planned on having coffee first thing in the morning. Now, I'm not certain of this, but I don't recall him drinking coffee in the original text. Like I said, I'm being nitpicky and it was something that took me out of the story.

However, the thing that really annoyed me was Watson's refusal to believe that Victoria Valentine was guilty. Now, Watson commonly believed in innocent until proven guilty in the books, especially female characters, which I'm fine with and is a good way of thinking, but his complete denial of Miss Valentine's guilt was frustrating with all the evidence against her.

While Holmes explained the evidence against her as the murderer of her brother, Watson comes up with various ways to explain the evidence. This is quite fine at first, a good way of closing up plot holes. However, Holmes could have easily pointed out these points himself and explained why the evidence was against here. Instead Watson refuses to believe anything said against the lady.

Then, Holmes says that he actually knew the Miss Valentine in her secret identity as a blackmailer. He had actually seen her blackmailing people. He did not realize it it was her till later in the story, and therefore knows more about her character. He tells of how he bribed a man at the location where she kept her blackmail evidence and was able to view it, and Watson still refused to believe ill of the lady!


Are You Fucking Kidding Me?.jpg


Another thing is that when Holmes comes home exhausted near the end of the story, he and Lestrade allude to the fact that Pierre Nemo is still alive, and yet when Sherlock And Mycroft discuss it the next day Watson is surprised!

Some things I did enjoy was BAMF female Mycroft. There was a part in the book where she left the room and I wondered if she was going to be taken hostage, but I was quite happy to see she held her own, and in fact due to her weaponry was the last person standing.

I was very glad Watson did not hit on her. I don't care if Watson falls for almost every female character, there's just something off limits, to me, about him hitting on Holmes' sister. It simply isn't on.

So yes, overall I did enjoy the story, but Watson's complete denial over the Lady's guilt really did affect how much I liked it. It's not fair to judge the book from that one scene, and yet at the same it can't be ignored.

[rick. · Rating 2 out of 5]

I love Sherlock Holmes: the Sir Arthur Conan Doyle classic stories, "Young Sherlock Holmes" film, the brilliant contemporary BBC series "Sherlock", and the older Brett and Rathbone versions. I also love the derivative series; "Psyche", "Monk", "Murder She Wrote", "CSI" and on and on. I love the mystery, and the application of observation and intelligence to solve the unsolvable. I like to follow along and either assemble the clues or note the moments when Sherlock gets on the trail. Even if I don't know what he knows, you can see the reaction, when something has caught his attention. So I backed the kickstarter campaign for Steampunk Holmes: Legacy of the Nautilus.

I dove into SH:LotN with two incorrect assumptions which lessened my overall enjoyment. The first incorrect assumption was that it was an original mystery, instead it is an alternate telling of The Adventure of the Bruce-Partington Plans, although significant alterations were made near the end of the story. This was not a deal breaker, as I mentioned, I love the show "Sherlock" which has done exquisitely detailed remakes of several classic Sherlock stories. The second incorrect assumption was the incorporation of steampunk would provide a mash-up of genres. Sadly the steampunk influence is quite sparce. Instead of a damaged leg Watson has a mechanical arm; instead of using a handsome Sherlock drives a motorbike; the submarine from the original story is specified as Captain Nemo's Nautilus, but apart from these substitutions it has little impact. Where steampunk gets its interest is in the details, the cogs and pistons, steam and complexity. All of that detail is missing and makes the steampunk aspect a thin veneer.

In the end Steampunk Holmes: Legacy of the Nautilus was okay. P.C. Martin has wonderfully captured the voice and pacing of the classic novels and has some nice flourishes, but there isn't enough new or original to recommend over The Bruce-Partington Plans.

[Carl · Rating 3 out of 5]

P.C. Martin’s “Steampunk Holmes: Legacy of the Nautilus” is set in an alternative Steampunk universe (c.1885). This alone would not have swayed me to buy the book; however when I discovered a plot element involved the theft of the plans for Captain Nemo's mysterious Nautilus submarine, I was hooked. In reality, Martin’s story is taken from Doyle’s short story, “The Adventure of the Bruce-Partington Plans” and then married to elements from Vern’s “Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea.” They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, and Martin has certainly done that with this plot collaboration.

With a unique plot and some clever twists, the story starts off on a familiar note – the plans have been stolen. (Here the plans are the recently discovered plans for Captain Nemo's mysterious Nautilus submarine.) Holmes, along with Watson, has been brought in to save the day by Mycroft, here his sister. In this steampunk world, Mycroft is a beautiful, statuesque, intelligent and deadly government agent. Doctor Watson is now the “bionic doctor” with a mechanical arm complete with weapons. Sherlock’s choice of transportation is the “Widowmaker“ – a steam powered motorcycle with a sidecar. Beyond these elements and the airship, complete with pirates, the steampunk elements were a little weak.

This book was not very long, maybe that's why it seemed a bit rushed at the end. The second half of the book could have been developed more. While the Martin makes a fair go at imitating Conan Doyle's style, the plot, especially that dealing with Nemo, could have used greater development. This leads to some frustration with the resolution of the tale, which, after some build-up, falls a little flat. Regardless, there are some very clever twists in the book; however, if you are interested in a short Holmesian mystery mixed with stellar steampunk elements, you will be somewhat disappointed. It is an “OK” mystery, perhaps even a good one, but certainly not a GREAT one. Still, for all its weaknesses, I will still recommend it to you.

[Madeleine Holly-Rosing · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'll admit that other than the movies and old and the new BBC TV shows, I was never a huge Holmes fan. I read a few books a long time ago, but barely remember them. However, since we've been inundated lately with a a couple of really good reboots and updates, I've been enjoying them quite a bit. And I've been following the whole development process of Noble Beast Publishing on Tweeter, which is why I expected more out of this novella.

The general story follows Holmes, Watson and his Holmes' sister Mycroft ( a little gender switching there) on the trail of several murders and the disappearance of some top secret engineering plans originally created by THE Captain Nemo. The premise works for me, however the execution does not.

I think P.C. Martin was trying to emulate Doyle's writing style which is fun and cute up to a point, but got exceedingly boring after awhile. The story didn't really get interesting until "Pierre" entered the picture. I also hated the fact that Watson was so passive. Yes, I know he was that way in the original books if I remember correctly, but I was constantly comparing him to Watson in the current TV show "Sherlock" and he came away very wanting. I think for today's audience he needed to be more a part of the team and not have Sherlock vanish for a few days and feed us all the answers. And throwing a few steampunk type weapons doesn't make it steampunk in my mind. It almost smacks of lazy writing other than what I mentioned before about emulating Doyle's style. It was OK for when he wrote it, but not so much now.

My thought is she should have completely re-thought the Holmes mythology and come up with her own unique viewpoint on him. The movies and TV shows have certainly done it and maintained the integrity of the character as well as been very entertaining. I'm sure she would have gotten a lot of grief from the "traditionalists," but it would have been a lot more fun.

[Amanda · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this bit of fiction. I have been a loyal fan of The Canon and I take the treatment of Mr. Sherlock Holmes and Dr. John H. Watson very seriously.

*SPOILERS*

I liked the changes (a female Mycroft, Watson's arm, and the Widowmaker) I didn't find it to far a leap at all to see Holmes as an enthusiast of both this very modern form of transportation as well as the tinkering he takes to in the hopes of better equipping his friend.

I actually find that, for me at least, Holmes and Watson lend themselves very well to the roles of "Action Heroes". The action is in keeping with the pace of most things these days, that is to say very quick.

It moves very swiftly along the same vain as the Navel Treaty with some key differences. Holmes is as clever as always and his stalwart Doctor as handy as ever, the deductions are still there and truly shine when seen in a world that technology is advancing by leaps and bounds.
This is to be only the beginning of a series of books in this inventive and tantalizing world.

My only disappointment is in Doctor Watson's blindness in respects to the guilt of Victoria proving the widespread belief that he is easily won over by a pretty face, though his compassion and effort in attempting to save her life was very moving and something I wholly approve of.
And I for one will back this project in any way I can, my money on kick-starter and the words I speak to others.
I eagerly await another installment.

[Casia Pickering · Rating 5 out of 5]

Talk about a fun read. What with SHERLOCK coming back for its third season, it only made sense that I would/should read a Sherlock Holmes inspired tome. STEAMPUNK HOLMES is a series where a classic is mashed up with the Sherlock Holmes characters and shaken in a steam filled engine.

This story is action packed. P.C. Martin is very imaginative and somehow sews the classic TWENTY THOUSAND LEAGUES UNDER THE SEA wonderfully with Sherlock Holmes. I did have an idea on who the villain was, but it was still an amazing read. Very funny in a lot of parts and completely awesome because of the explosions. Yes, explosions.

What is great about the STEAMPUNK HOLMES series is that not only can you get it in its book form, but it is interactive on the iPad and computer. I happen to have the audio which features actors doing the voices of the various characters. It made the story feel even more alive.

It's a great read for someone who likes anything Steampunk or Sherlock Holmes. It's also a great read for the action driven reader. If you do get it in audio, it's great for when you're cleaning. That's what I did.

[Fae · Rating 4 out of 5]

Many parts of this Steampunk Sherlock Holmes tale were very enjoyable. The author does an impressive job of using the language of Sherlock Holmes. As someone who inherently focuses on language use, I noticed and appreciated that author has a masterful repertoire of language tools to use to construct meaning in the context of the Sherlock Holmes universe. She knows her stuff, in other words.

The plot enjoys elements that are original to this tale, are mashups of other tales, and also contains elements of an original Sir Arthur Conan Doyle Sherlock plot. While I think this melange of plot elements lends the tale an air of familiarity and authenticity, part of me suggests that giving Sherlock a more original mystery to figure out the details to would have given me as a reader more excitement, as I saw parts of the mystery coming together.

Overall I enjoyed the Steampunk twists in this story and the changes that the author chose to make to the universe fit very well with the Steampunk genre.

[Terry · Rating 4 out of 5]

"The Adventure of the Bruce-Partington Plans" gets a steampunk makeover in P.C. Martin’s Steampunk Holmes: Legacy of the Nautilus. Mycroft Holmes, Sherlock’s beautiful, statuesque and well-armed sister, sets Holmes and Watson on the path to recovering stolen submarine plans. Sherlock tools around London on a gatling-gun equipped motorcycle with a mechanical-armed Dr. Watson sitting in the sidecar, together unraveling clues, dueling assassins, and chasing airships. Steampunk trappings and gender-bending aside, Martin’s take probably follows the Conan Doyle story too closely for this to feel completely original, but the world building and hints at a broader story arc give the reader hope that Legacy of the Nautilus is the foundation for a fully-realized and unique Steampunk Holmes franchise.

It’s also worth noting that Steampunk Holmes is a multimedia event. An audiobook and interactive app are currently being developed, and the concept art found at http://www.steampunkholmes.com/ amplifies the reading experience.

[Miss Banana · Rating 3 out of 5]

Like someone else mentioned, it felt like just another Holmes story. Like, there was hardly ANY steampunk aspect to it (I mean, sure, I would probably have been annoyed if there was a plethora of begoggled, begeared airship pirates running around but still--!). I backed the kickstarter, which is how I got my hands on this book and will be receiving subsequent copies of the later books; I understand that the point behind the project was to create a visually and audibly "steampunk" approach to the story, and it used a familiar Homes tale as a backbone to build from (I'm sort of glad it wasn't a "Study in Scarlet", really).

All in all, it was a quick read, a Holmes story that was fairly average as Holmes stories go, but nothing terribly exciting.

[Sleeping_gorilla · Rating 1 out of 5]

This review reflects the Audible.com version of the book.

Synopsis: Holmes and Watson investigate the theft of important Engineering Keys, as well as the murder of the trusted employee in charge of them.

I don't want to be too hard on the author, it's not easy to write a book. In short, I found this too be very wordy and difficult to get into. The story keeps stopping so that we can get a very detailed description of a motorcycle, or an arm mounted missile. Holmes keeps rambling on and on, and frankly he's the most boring character in the story.

However the climax is a fun pay off, and shows PC Martin has talent. I would like to see more in the series, just please take this to another editor next time.

[Ryan · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fun reimagining of a Doyle classic in a steampunk milieu. In this version, Mycroft Holmes is a femme fatale, Watson a cyborg, and the Bruce-Partington Plans instead the plans for Nemo's Nautilus. These changes made for a fun trip, and I enjoyed the changes made to the source material for the most part (especially as I am a firm believer that the world needs more Mycroft Holmes). It falls off the rails a bit in the last act, when it becomes something of a summer action film rather than a Victoriana story, but this intersection is definitely worth a read if you regularly travel through the avenues of its ingredients.

[Ayse · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was quite excited for this a major fan of the Canon and of steampunk. Sadly it was a pretty mediocre effort. A reworking of a classic tale, shoehorning references to captain nemo, which added nothing to the original. There were too many coincidences especially about the doings at the Foul Fish and Fowl. There is no way that Conan Doyle would have had such contrived conveniences to reach a solution. The steampunk aspects also didn't add anything -- cyborg? Check. pointless airship? Check. Mysterious energy source? Check. But the whole story was told better in the original without any of those things necessary.

[Ellie Julio · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent reimagining of Holmes done in a brilliant reflection of Watson's original voice. I admit to being skeptical about the inclusion of the steampunk elements (such as the diabolical Widowmak'r) and the gender-swapping of Mycroft, but they fit seamlessly, enriching the narrative rather than detracting from it. My only qualm is the somewhat dangling resolution, which hints at further adventures in pursuit of the Nautilus but wraps the primary investigation with a heftier dose of logical leaps on Holmes' part than is satisfying. Overall, the story is highly entertaining, and I'm looking forward to reading more new adventures!

[Mars · Rating 1 out of 5]

Cool, a female Mycroft! But is that really an appropriate name for a lady? And the real Mycroft is a lazy Mycroft, one who does not go around town for work. That's what he/she needs Sherlock for.

Cool, a mechanical arm for Watson! But equipped with a Russian rocket-launcher? A bit over-the-top, perhaps?

I couldn't really appreciate the steampunk factor - if anything, some of the elements felt forced. Steampunk Holmes didn't work for me, and halfway through, I had to drag myself to finish it. I hope the steampunk is better expressed in the graphic novel adaptation.

[Helen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very fun imagining of Sherlock Holmes. It maintains a narrative voice faithful to the canon works, with a rich atmosphere and plenty of Holmesian antics. Very well put together, and any new works in this universe can only further deepen the world.

It is very short, and really just a retelling of the Bruce-Partington Plans adventure with a steampunk twist. The characters are relaxed in their environment, with Martin doing an excellent job of mimicking Watson's voice and sentiments.

Very fun.

[Brittney · Rating 4 out of 5]

I haven't read "The Adventure of the Bruce-Partington Plans" so I can't tell you how close this compares action/story wise. But I did think this is a well done attempt at blending Sherlock Holmes and the steampunk genre. Mycroft is female, a twist that was pulled off splendidly, Watson has a mechanical arm, and Sherlock loves his motorcycle 'Widowmaker.' Again, since I haven't read the original story, I can't give much more feedback on the similarities/differences. As soon as I get a copy and read it, I will update this review.

[Anne Karine · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really liked this book. I got the audiobook version through Audible, and listened to it while commuting to/from work. It's not a very long book (about 3 hours in audio version), and it's really setting itself up for a sequel towards the end, but it does also give a satisfying conclusion to the mystery.
I thought it was fun, action-filled, easy read, so if you're a fan of Sherlock Holmes, steampunk, or both, I'd recommend this.

[Jim Razinha · Rating 2 out of 5]

Hmmm. I've decided one of my book themes for next year will be Books I Should Have Read Already, and The Complete Sherlock Holmes is on that list. I've read some stories here and there and made about 15-20% progress on the 2-volume Barnes and Noble bind up I had, but this at least makes me want to read the real stories. Nice try, but weak in the latter half of the book.

[Masha · Rating 3 out of 5]

While the promise of combining two of my favourite things Steampunk and Sherlock Holmes seemed promising, unfortunately the author adds nothing new to the genre of Sherlock Holmes tributes. And overall the steampunk element seemed forced. Disappointing.

[Rlbrown · Rating 4 out of 5]

The mystery is fast paced with plenty of nods to the classic Holmes, sure to please the devoted fans of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle while including just enough Steampunk to satisfy that audience as well.

Read my complete review at:

http://doctorfantastiques.com/2012/11...